Weekly Roundup

I’m too tired to come up with an interesting title this week.  We saw Tom Petty last night and after standing on concrete for two hours (and stayig up late) I’m wiped out.  I don’t want to move off the couch.  so let’s begin…

In comics, beyond the pile I always have (which my local comic book guy said was a sign of my problem), Secret Invasion 4 came out this week and the cross over keeps getting better and better. Usually with a Marvel summer cross over I can figure that things will be the same at the end but with this one, I’m not sure. It’s really quite good. Some other thoughts on comics this week include:

• The Invincible Super Blog highlights some interesting comics.
• LOTRKing reviews Hellboy II. If it’s as good as some of the Hellboy universe books have been lately, it should rock.
• One book I’m looking forward to reading is Captain America White.

In movies, the AVClub has finally recognized the greatest achievement in film history… Roadhouse.

• They also discuss The Wackness.

In music, Electricity & Lust has released a list of their favorite albums since the year of their birth. I might have to try that. Check it out here. I agree with a good number of the choices.

• Plain or Pan? has some incredible Rolling Stones recordings on his blog…

In books, the Times highlighted The Size of the World, by Joan Silber. It looks worth picking up, but I’m a sucker for short fiction.

In television, I’ve TiVo’d the first installment of HBO’s Generation Kill, I’m lookign forward to it.

That’s it for now. I’ll write more once I recover.

Happy 5th

Well it’s the holiday weekend. I was going to post yesterday but I got lazy on the couch. So I’ll just jump in before I drift into a nap again.

First, in comics, I’ve made yet another trip to the comic book store. My local shop was having a sale on sets and I got the coolest thing… I found the entire run of Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur. I had the last issue when I was a kid and it’s quite beat up by now. It was a great price and a nice addition to my collection. Even better, Sean will have it around and get to read the entire series. It’s really kind of mental and interesting and strange.   I also picked up Astonishing X-Men #25, the first in a new story arc with a new creative team. I doubt it will be as good as Joss Whedon’s run, but I’ll give it a try.

Also in comics:

• The Super Invincible Blog highlights the week that was in July 2. I’ve picked up some of these issues as well, including the freakout issue of Batman.
• Click here for a Comics report card. I agree totally with their thought that Captain America is the best book around.
• LOTRKing reviews both Captain America #39 and Mighty Avengers #15.

In movies/DVD, the AVClub reviews Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters. I wrote about it earlier this week here. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth the time.

• The AVClub also reviews The Wackness, a new film about 1994. I’m intrigued by this movie but will wait for it to hit HBO or Netflix. I’m also curious to see the Ben Kingsley/Olsen twin thing.

In music, Plain or Pan directs us to quite possibly the coolest Dylan spoof ever.

In links, Electricity & Lust has its regular mix of cool stuff to check out. Especially interesting were the Liz Phair, Batman, and Zach de la Rocha articles. I am so glad they’ve got the time to go out and scour the interwebs so I don’t have to. They always find the best stuff.

Well, I’ll be back next week with the roundup and I’ll mention anything else I come across in my journeys. Enjoy the hotdogs and hamburgers this weekend.

Mishima

Out on DVD today is Paul Schrader’s Mishima: A Life in four Chapters. This is one of those movies that I saw in college and still sticks with me today. The beauty of the filming and the weaving of Yukio Mishima’s real life story with his fiction is just amazing.

Yukio Mishima is one of Japan’s greatest post-war authors. His books are stunning as was his nationalistic samurai views. I was introduced to his work by a college professor and some friends and dare to call him the Japanese Hemingway.

The New York Times writes a great, brief review of the film here. It’s definitely something to add to your Netflix queue.  And yes, that is really a picture of him!

Richard Ford: Leaving for Kenosha

In my never-ending quest to catch up on my backlog of New Yorker magazines, I’m finding that the fiction is standing out. Today on my flight I read a Richard Ford story: Leaving For Kenosha. I’ve tried to read Richard Ford in the past with mixed results. It’s surprised me because I like a number of his contemporaries and friends with similar tastes have liked him. This story, however, was great.

It’s the story of a father and his young daughter, strained by a divorce he figures is somehow his fault. He drives his daughter to the dentist and then to visit a school friend who is moving from New Orleans to Wisconsin because her father has been transferred. At first I wondered if the backdrop of New Orleans was slightly forced, but then I realized it fits in well with the main character’s life. What was once there is gone and the rebuilding is slow and confusing. His marriage, his relationship with his daughter, where he wanted to be at this point in his life all seem to be beyond his control.

The opening line hit me and it just kept on going for me.  Despite upheaval, life goes on. 

It was the anniversary of the disaster.  Walter Hobbes was on his way uptown to pick up his daughter, Louise, at Trinity.  She had the dentist at four.

Where’s Your Burpcloth?

That’s the big question in my house for the 15th straight week as Sean continues to resemble Linda Blair. This week I’ve actually put a decent dent in my giant stack of comics, watched some Battlestar Galactica, and continued to listen to the new Jakob Dylan album while also listening to the new Mudhoney album (I wrote a tiny bit about it here). So before the baby spits up all over me again, let’s begin…

In comics this week there are a few good things to note…

• LOTRKing gives us a Marvel year in review. Or at least the year so far. I half agree with his X-Men synopsis but can’t argue with the rest of his article. He also digs back into the archives and reviews Fantastic Four #124 from 1972.
• The AVClub features a lengthy comics panel
• Electricity & Lust pointed me towards Peter Travers’ review of The Dark Knight and it sounds quite amazing.
• Zach Smith had a cool free comic called Satan P.I. on his website (it showed up in my reader) but the link has been disabled. When it comes back I’ll link to it, it’s really sharp and fun!

Finally in comics, I believe the comics world is off in Chicago (or about to return). I know the guys at my local shop, Ultimate Comics (as seen in the new Marvel book 1985) are there. I’ve also found the Invinsible Superblog.

In television, thanks to Cinematically Correct for posting the preview of the new season of 24. The question is, will they sucker me in again?

In books and other misc. words, a few things I noticed this week…

• David Guterson, the author of Snow Falling on Cedars has published The Other. The Times reviews it here as well.
• One-Story posted some interesting stuff this week. Their intern released a quite interesting list of his top-10 stories. This was in response to a top ten list published by EW which spurred a discussion here.
• The Times talks about a new e-book reader.

Electricity & Lust has two interesting posts this week. Their Diggin post talks about the New Hold Steady (among other stuff), and they provide the usual great mix of links per usual. Many weeks they help me keep up on stuff in ten minutes instead of searching for hours. I’d add them to my RSS if I were you.

And finally, George Carlin died a week ago. I’ve posted a few thoughts from others below, but my favorite was when Howard Stern asked Gilbert Gottfried if he had any bad stories about George Carlin and he did. Apparently George told Gilbert to get the hell away from him and to leave him alone once.

• Cinematically Correct mentions it here.
• The AVClub here.
• The New York Times here.

Quiet Week

Once I finished the The Corrections it’s been a pretty quiet week. I tried to plow through a bit of my pile of old New Yorkers and basically picked over articles and stories. Nothing too exciting. So here goes nothing:

In short-fiction, I did read a few things. Like I said, I’m chipping away at a pile of New Yorkers and a few One-Story issues. I also started The Boat by Nam Le (so far it’s fantastic).

• Alice Munro’s story Free Radicals was pretty good despite an easy ending. Why you should never open the door to strangers.
• If You Can Hear Me Thinking by Kiara Brinkman (from One-Story) was a great story as well.
• Love and Honor and Pity and Pride and Compassion and Sacrifice the first story in The Boat was great. Interestingly it deals with writer’s block and the act of writing. It’s really a great story that sometimes makes you think more about what isn’t fully explained or said.

In not-so-short fiction, Shannon tells you to go read The Hobbit.

In music, Guns ‘N Roses’ long awaited album was leaked for like 13 minutes this week on the interwebs. I write a little about it over here.

• Also, I keep meaning to link over to Plain or Pan? a really great music website from a Scot with a huge collection of stuff.

In television, the AVClub interviews Billy West of Futurama and Ren & Stimpy fame. I, however, was introduced to him via the Howard Stern show where he did such imitations as Marge Schott and The Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley.

In links, the following sub-finds…

• I found Wordspy a site that introduces you to newly coined phrases.
• In art, I found a site this week that gives you cheap options for art. It’s called 20×200 and gives you the option of buying a $20, $200, or $2,000 version of the same piece. My problem is that I think some of the pictures from my vacation are better and I can’t figure out how to sell them here!
• Not so much art as photography, I did try a very cool site affiliated with Flickr this week. It’s called MOO and enables you to make postcards, notecards, mini-cards, etc. from your own pics stored on Flickr. I’ll let you know what I think when I get the first pics back.

I’m behind on comics and don’t have anything to report this week. Hopefully I’ll attack the pile this week and have something to report back on.  Hope all are having a good summer.

The Corrections

So last night I finally finished The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I’m a little behind the curve in reading it (it was published in 2001), but it’s a big book. It sits there on the shelf and kind of dares you to make the effort to pick it up. Well I’m incredibly glad I finally did pick it up.

It’s the story of a disfunctional family, or maybe a normal family. Enid and Albert Lambert are fading (or at least Albert is) as they age and leave many of there trials and issues to their children Gary, Chip, and Denise. Of course, the children all have their own issues that make their lives a trainwreck too. When you combine dementia, unemployment, sexual identity, poor choices, and a jaunt in Lithuania you get a damn fine book.

The thing that The Corrections does that many books do not is fully capture the mess we make out of our lives without thinking it needs to go somewhere. The characters in this book work through their issues but really don’t fix everything so they can ride off into the sunset. They’re still flawed individuals that will go on making good and bad decisions until they die. The only real plot in the book is Enid’s desire to have her family together in St. Jude for one last Christmas. She can hold onto all of her illusions about life and her children until she gets that.

Honestly, this is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I think it might crack my top ten…

Some additional reading regarding the Corrections:

• The Wikipedia Entry
• The Britannica Entry for those who prefer a real encyclopedia.
• Time Magazine puts it on its all time 100
• The publisher’s author’s page
• Salon.com article
• Buy it at Powell’s

The Incredible Hulk

In the latest round of comic book movies, Iron Man has been getting all of the love.  While it didn’t get panned, the reviews for the Incredible Hulk have been lukewarm at best.  I finally understand.  It’s obvious that the people who made The Incredible Hulk actually cared what people like me, comic book readers, thought.  As a result, much of the shmaltz that is woven into movies so that the general public can swallow then is not here.

I’m not going to give any spoilers here but I have to make a few comments.  First, this movie doesn’t see the need to give us a long-winded and cliched origin story.  Actually, it uses the origin found in the television show as a backdrop to the credits.  I actually prefered this because, as a long-time reader of the Hulk, if they’re going to tell an origin story I’d prefer it to involve a gamma bomb. It also allows us to sidestep what would end up being an hour of slow story development and trade it in for some action.

That being said, we get Bruce Banner in Brazil, trying to learn to control the monster inside.  Of course we know that won’t happen because otherwise there would be no movie.  What we get in addition to a great Hulk is a supporting cast full of the characters needed for any Hulk movie.  William Hurt plays a great General Thunderbolt Ross and Liv Tyler is adequate as Betty Ross. What we get in addition to these two is Tim Roth in a fantastic performance as Emil Blonsky and Tim Blake Nelson as Samuel Sterns.

Other nice touches include cameos by Stan Lee and Lou Ferrigno. Additional touches for long-time Hulk fans include Jim Wilson (one of the Hulk’s former sidekicks) and McGee (the name of the reporter who hounded the Hulk on television) within the film. I do wish that Rick Jones had somehow been worked into the movie as his sidekick.

Overall this movie was fantastic. It includes yet another teaser for the Avengers movie scheduled to be released in 2011 and remembers that the angrier the Hulk gets, the stronger he gets. Don’t believe the reviews that say the movie has no heart, is lacking, etc. This movie was well worth the price of the ticket.

Happy Father’s Day

I know I’m two days early but the title is appropriate, especially this year. So what’s going on this week?

In movies, Shannon and I are leaving the boy with his grandparents and going to see The Incredible Hulk. Everyone keeps telling me to go see Iron Man, but the Hulk and Spiderman are the two comic books I’ve been reading since I can remember being on this Earth.

• LoTRKing has reviewed it here
• The AVClub reviews it here
• Cinematically Correct is trying to avoid a much worse fate than seeing the Hulk.

In some ways the Hulk gives me a good parenting philosophy. Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.

In comics as movies news Leonardo Dicaprio is the new rumor as the movie version of Captain America. I don’t think they’ve come up with a good choice yet.

• More viral marketing for The Dark Knight here. (Thanks to Electricity & Lust for the last two items). They’ve got a GREAT post this week.

Moving slightly from movies into comics…

The AVClub has its regular Comics Panel.

In technology, thanks to Cinematically Correct for introducing me to the search engine that gives you motion sickness… Viewzi.

It’s been a light week otherwise.  Thankfully it’s over.  I’ll share some thoughts on the Hulk once I see it.

Weekend Activities

I actually got out and did stuff this weekend.  What a shocker!  First my dad and I want to see Jakob Dylan on Friday night.   The show was good and I’ve written my thoughts over on yet another specialized blog. 

Second, we bought Cloverfield on Pay-Per-View.  I’m still thinking about the movie but I think Shannon may have gotten it right when she said they remade Godzilla with a handheld camera…  I don’t want to spoil anything, but the movie was pretty good.  I really wish that we had a few more answers.  An outside perspective would have been interesting. 

After a while I got tired of all the super good looking kids running through Manhattan expressing undying love for each other.  I was kind of missing the fat guy with bad facial hair that provides comic relief (like in the Godzilla movies).

Again, showing that we’re ahead of the times we’re going to watch the end of season one of Battlestar Galactica.  It might actually encourage us to get Netflix. 

Next weekend Shannon is going to take me to see The Incredible Hulk for father’s day. I’m kind of psyched!